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Omni seeks edge on the golf experience

Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate is enticing more guests to stay on site thanks to Eagles Edge, a facility that offers indoor / outdoor bar, dining and event space, along with 30 hitting bays featuring Toptracer for gaming or practice

DAVENPORT, Florida — Thinking out of the box and taking advantage of the massive growth of golf has proved to be a winning combination at Omni Hotels & Resorts location outside of Orlando.

What was once an orange grove more than two decades ago is now home to more than 1,000 guest rooms, 255,000 square feet of meeting space and 36 holes of golf at Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate.

The location was once home base to one of golf’s best instructors — David Leadbetter — before ownership decided to head in a different direction and invest $17 million in a new concept called Eagles Edge, which opened in March 2024.  

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With two 18-hole courses already in place, Onmi Orlando at Champions Gate added Eagles Edge in 2024. The facility includes 30 state-of-the-art hitting bays featuring Toptracer technology.

"Our original marketing message of the facility at that time was ‘Come to ChampionsGate and play where the champions play,'" says Patrick Dill, ChampionsGate's director of golf. "Fast forward 20 years later and two extensions to David's contract and our owners started looking at the changes in golf with things like YouTube and video technology and said 'Golfers can talk to David on the phone or they can send him video and he can give comments. They didn’t have to go to where David is to get instruction.'"

That revelation directly led to the creation of Eagles Edge, which is a short walk from the main resort area, and features meeting space, a restaurant, several bars and 30 state-of-the-art hitting bays featuring Toptracer Range technology. Guests can compete against each other and get instant stat feedback, or play a course like Pebble Beach or Pinehurst No. 2. Business groups seem to have also embraced the new concept, which is still less than a year old.   

"It has been a wild success for the brand," Dill says. "It has been a wild success for the property. It really differentiates Champions Gate in the marketplace because you can come here and you don't have to leave, you don't have to get on a bus to drive to Topgolf. You can just walk out your door and there it is."

The range and inflatable targets are lighted for night play. The targets are different colors to give the entire scene a party vibe.

"If you look, 20 percent of the population are avid golfers and the rest just like to hang out around it," Dill says. "Eagles Edge is fun, it's unique, it's different. A lot of people have stories to tell and golf is a very social sport. We’ve seen great success with group play."

In addition to the nearby Orange County Convention Center, the Orlando area has nine other resorts that feature at least 250,000 square feet of meeting space.

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Eagles Edge (foreground) is ideally located to the ChampionsGate's two Greg Norman-designed golf courses — the National and International.

"We're all competing for that customer who is coming from somewhere else to buy our hotel rooms, buy our food and use our convention space," Dill says. "With Eagles Edge, I don't have to spend $1,500 to put people on a bus and send them somewhere else. They can just come and walk over. It’s a huge savings for us, it’s a major convenience and it's helping us win the group business competition in the market."

Omni, with more than 50 total properties, now owns 13 different locations that have golf courses with a total of 28 layouts.

"We’re bullish on non-traditional golf experiences along with top-tier elite golf experiences," says Spencer Cody, director or golf operations for all of Omni’s properties. 

Since COVID-19, there has been fierce competition among resorts to lure golfers with families, who are willing to travel far distances and spend money on unique experiences.  

"I think the differentiator for us is we're owned and operated by one family," Cody says. "And that to me brings a level of cohesiveness across all of our properties that's really important."

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Eagles Edge's 30 hitting bays feature Toptracer technology for both game improvement and gaming capabilities.

Cody notes that resort golf rounds are still growing, but have leveled off somewhat.

"COVID brought a lot of new people to the game; it reinvigorated a lot of people's passion for the game," he says. "So for us it's about creating these amazing, unique destinations where people can go and golf is going to be a part of it but there's other things that people need and want, too.”

Cody pays close attention to the yearly National Golf Foundation release on golf’s trends.

"It helps us understand our core business," Cody says. "What I’m seeing, and what I take from that data, is places like Eagles Edge is exposing people to the game. And what we're seeing now is people that get exposed here are seeking out traditional golf experiences and becoming core golfers. And that's ultimately what's going to behoove all of us in the industry."


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